2 students suspended over 'kill list'

HORTONVILLE - Hortonville police say officers have found an alleged "kill list" they say two high school girls wrote.

District officials suspended the students, who are also facing possible criminal charges.

Wednesday, school leaders spent hours meeting with each of those students and contacting their parents.

Hortonville High School students felt the fallout of the discovery of the list that caused a "soft lockdown" Tuesday.

"This morning I saw more officers this morning in the parking lot than usual," said Hortonville High School student Garrett Ploch.

Police say the names of more than 60 students were on the list.

Officers say they found it Tuesday afternoon in the home of one the two high school girls suspended for creating the list.

Although more than one draft was written, police say the threat did not seem credible.

"There isn't anything that points to, that they had an execution date, time, or a way to actually establish what they had planned on doing," said Hortonville Police Chief Michael Sullivan.

Chief Sullivan says police discovered the list through cell phone video taken when one of the students was showing it on a school bus.

"The kids were able to give us names and throughout the interviews that were involved, these two females names came up, and so then they were ultimately spoken to at the school by school staff and admitted to actually writing up the list," said Sullivan.

Not only did the school suspend the two students, Hortonville police say they plan to recommend charges in connection with the list.

"It's kind of a lot of drama, everybody's kind of talking about it," said Hortonville High School student Season Bennett.

Bennett says she knows one of the two girls accused of making the kill list.

"I think they were just doing it in a joking way, but yet again, that wasn't the right thing to do," Bennett said.

Security has been stepped up at the school. An expulsion hearing is pending. School officials say they take all threats seriously.

"We make sure that individuals that did something wrong are held responsible, and that our students and our staff feel safe coming to school," said district administrator Heidi Schmidt.

Students we spoke Wednesday said they did.

"I don't feel that anyone is that concerned about their safety because they've got it pretty covered here good," said Ploch.

Parents felt equally reassured.

"They've been real informative in helping us parents feel more comfortable about the situation," said Wendy Wiegman whose son attends the high school.

Chief Sullivan says possible charges could include disorderly conduct, and reimbursement of the investigation costs.

The chief says the girls have been cooperative with school staff and police.